The Purgatory of St. Patrick

The Purgatory of St. Patrick, originally El Purgatorio de San Patricio, is a religious play by Pedro Calderón de la Barca (1600-1681) drawing on the medieval Irish legend of St Patrick’s Purgatory, the pilgrimage cave at Lough Derg in County Donegal that was one of the major medieval European pilgrimage sites.

The medieval legend held that St Patrick had been shown an entrance to Purgatory at Lough Derg and that pilgrims who entered the cave with proper spiritual preparation would experience visions of Purgatory and could obtain remission of their sins. The cave was a major European pilgrimage destination from the twelfth century through the seventeenth and produced a substantial literature in various European languages.

Calderón’s play dramatizes the legend in his characteristic Spanish Golden Age dramatic mode, with substantial attention to the religious and moral themes that the Purgatory tradition raised. The play belongs to his substantial body of religious drama and was performed in the Spanish Habsburg court context where Catholic religious themes were central to the supported theatrical culture.